Why do national GAAP differ from IAS? The role of culture

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1 The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) Why do national GAAP differ from IAS? The role of culture Yuan Ding 1, Thomas Jeanjean, Hervé Stolowy* HEC School of Management, Paris, Department of Accounting and Management Control, 1, rue de la Libération, 78351, Jouy-en-Josas Cedex, France Abstract In this paper, we investigate the role of culture as an explanatory factor underlying differences between national GAAP and International Accounting Standards (IAS). National GAAP can differ from IAS in two ways: (1) divergence: both national GAAP and IAS cover a specific accounting topic but prescribe different methods; or (2) absence: national GAAP do not cover an accounting issue regulated by IAS. Based on Nobes [Nobes, C. (Ed.) (2001). Gaap 2001 A Survey of National Accounting Rules Benchmarked Against International Accounting Standards. IFAD.] data, we construct a measure for the level of divergence of national GAAP benchmarked on IAS. We also create a measure (labeled absence) to assess the scope of national accounting rules compared to IAS. Our sample is made up of 52 countries. We show that culture matters more than legal origin (common law/civil-law) in explaining divergences from IAS. This result is robust to two proxies for culture: Hofstede [Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations. Second, Sage Publications (London).] and Schwartz [Schwartz, S. H. (1994). Beyond individualism/collectivism: New cultural dimensions of values. In U. Kim, H. C. Triandis, C. Kagitcibasi, S. C. Choi, & G. Yoon (Eds.), Individualism and collectivism: Theory, method and applications (85119). Sage.]. Our findings contribute to the ongoing debate on accounting harmonization. More specifically, they suggest that the technical and/ or political dimensions of the debate, although essential, are not the only ones involved. Opposition to IAS is not exclusively driven by contractual motives, a claimed technical superiority, or legal origin, but also by diversity in cultural factors. Another contribution of this paper is the DOIs of the original articles: /j.intacc , /j.intacc * Corresponding author. 1 Regular Visiting Professor of Accounting at the China-Europe Business School (CEIBS), Shanghai, China. address: (H. Stolowy) /$30.00 D 2005 University of Illinois. All rights reserved. doi: /j.intacc

2 326 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) development of a two-dimensional score to measure the differences between national GAAP and IAS. D 2005 University of Illinois. All rights reserved. Keywords: International accounting harmonization; Culture; Hofstede; Schwartz 1. Introduction The importance of international accounting harmonization is now widely accepted for several reasons. First, the rapid development of international capital markets is strengthening their dominant role as an economic resource distributor. How information is disclosed to the market is a central issue in ensuring market efficiency. Second, the increasingly frequent cross-listing of multinationals generates an urgent need for a single universal set of accounting standards for these firms in order to reduce information production costs and send out a unified, reliable message to the market. Third, the activities of institutional investors are becoming increasingly internationalized. Their presence in foreign markets is forcing domestic listed firms to play the accounting game by global rules. As a legitimate pretender to the role of global GAAP, International Accounting Standards (IAS in the rest of the paper) (renamed International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) from 2001) have been growing in fame since the endorsement in 2000 of the Comparability Project by the IOSCO and the reform in 2001 that saw the IASC become the IASB. In June 2002, the European Union decided to make IAS compulsory for the consolidated accounts of all its listed companies from 2005 (European Union, 2002). This decision was followed by the introduction of similar policies in Russia, Australia, and New Zealand. In October 2002, the FASB and IASB issued a memorandum of understanding, marking a significant step towards formalizing their commitment to the convergence of U.S. and international accounting standards. However, not all countries are traveling down the road of convergence towards IAS at the same speed. The domestic accounting standards of the bslowerq countries often cover fewer issues than the IAS. There are two ways that a national GAAP system can differ from IAS: (1) divergence: both national GAAP and IAS cover a specific accounting topic but prescribe different methods; or (2) absence: national GAAP does not cover an accounting issue regulated by IAS. Conformity is easily understood in this context, but how can we explain the remaining differences (i.e. divergence or absence), especially in 2001, after several decades of development of IAS? In this paper, we investigate the role of a country s cultural values and legal origin in explaining the differences between national GAAP and IAS as of Based on the study of bgaap 2001Q (Nobes, 2001) conducted by several international accounting firms, 62 countries are assigned scores according to their divergence from IAS and the absence of national accounting standards on issues covered by IAS. Note that our measures are created on the basis of 2001 data. This allows us to analyze the btrueq divergence and absence indexes, as these differences are observed before the date of mandatory application of IAS in certain regions (e.g for the European Union and Australia).

3 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) We then analyze the relationship between these accounting harmonization scores and cultural values, as assessed with reference to the work of Hofstede (1980, 1991, 2001) and Schwartz (1994). Another possible approach would have been to investigate the influence of institutional/economic factors on our measures. However, since recent literature in economics and finance (Greif, 1994; Landes, 2000; Stulz & Williamson, 2003) demonstrates that culture is a determinant of institutions, this article stresses the importance of cultural rather than institutional factors. For more comprehensive coverage of the issue, we also integrate institutional factors into our model, in the form of legal origin, which proxies for various economic/institutional factors (La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, Shleiffer, & Vishny, 1998). In particular, as past research identified significant links between accounting disclosures and legal systems (Jaggi & Low, 2000; Hope, 2003), we hypothesize significant differences of approach to the IAS between two sub-samples: code-law countries and common-law countries. We find that cultural values matter more than legal origin in explaining divergence from IAS. However, with regard to the absence index, we find no significant relationship, and legal origin does not appear to have any influence on divergence from IAS or absence of local standards. These results contribute to the existing literature in two ways: the relationship between culture and international accounting harmonization has not been studied previously, and although legal origin is usually considered as an explanatory variable for accounting information (Ball, Kothari, & Robin, 2000), this does not seem to be the case for accounting regulation in the context of international accounting harmonization. This research will be valuable not only for understanding the current differences between IAS and national GAAP, but also for predicting the potential difficulties facing various countries in the move towards future international accounting harmonization. The rest of the paper proceeds as follows. Section 2 provides a review of the literature on international accounting differences and describes the measurement tool we used. Section 3 analyzes the relationship between culture and accounting, and lays out our hypotheses. Section 4 explains our research design and measurement of independent variables. Section 5 analyzes the empirical findings, Section 6 presents the limitations of this study, and Section 7 concludes the paper. 2. International accounting differences 2.1. Past research on measurement of international accounting differences In the literature, various data sources have been used to measure international accounting differences. During the 1970s, Price Waterhouse International (1973, 1975, 1979) published a series of studies on accounting principles and reporting practices worldwide. In 1973, the survey covered 233 principles and practices in 38 countries. The 1975 survey constitutes a better data source, with eight additional countries and 264 principles and practices covered. The sample in both studies is biased toward Western countries, and leaving certain areas of the world under-represented. The 1979 survey extended further to cover 64 countries. These surveys were used in several international

4 328 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) accounting studies (e.g. Doupnik & Taylor, 1985; Frank, 1979; McKinnon & Janell, 1984; Nair & Frank, 1980, 1981), all of which focus on accounting requirements and standards. Other studies (Emenyonu & Gray, 1996; Evans & Taylor, 1982; Murphy, 2000; Nobes, 1987; van der Tas, 1988) are more interested in company reporting practices. Tay and Parker (1990) review several of these studies (see also van der Tas, 1992). In their study on the accounting disclosure requirements of 35 stock exchanges throughout the world, Adhikari and Tondkar (1992) developed another tool to measure international accounting differences. They developed a composite disclosure index to measure the overall quantity and intensity of compulsory disclosures (44 information items, financial and non-financial) in the listing and filing requirements of different stock exchanges. The main limitation of their index for measuring international differences is that it covers disclosures only in annual reports. After summarizing the information on accounting practices in 15 countries (various European countries, the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Japan) plus IAS, Ordelheide and Semler (1995) proposed the TRANSACC Reference Matrix. Each country s complete accounting rules are presented in tabular form and the rules on any particular accounting issue are shown for all the countries covered by TRANSACC. Accordingly, the matrix covers those rules that determine the content of the balance sheet and income statement, including recognition and valuation as well as the consolidation methods applied in the respective countries. It provides information on each accounting method under review in the following form: R (required), A (allowed), F (forbidden). Ordelheide and Semler s study provides a comprehensive examination of different accounting methods, but is restricted to the most developed countries in the world. In subsequent literature, several studies have used this matrix to classify countries according to their accounting differences (e.g. d Arcy, 2001). More recently, Ashbaugh and Pincus (2001) sought to determine whether the variation in accounting standards across national boundaries relative to IAS had an impact on financial analysts ability to forecast the earnings of non-u.s. firms accurately. They analyzed accounting practices in 13 countries to identify differences in countries accounting standards relative to IAS, covering both differences in disclosure requirements and measurement methods for IAS versus sample firms domestic GAAP in To conclude, there is room for improvement in the existing measurements for international accounting differences. Some of them are out of date (Price Waterhouse International, 1973, 1975, 1979); others concern only a limited number of countries (Ashbaugh & Pincus, 2001; Ordelheide & Semler, 1995), cover only a selection of accounting issues (Adhikari & Tondkar, 1992), or deal with measurement of accounting differences on a corporate reporting basis (Emenyonu & Gray, 1996; Evans & Taylor, 1982; van der Tas, 1988) Measuring a country s accounting harmonization We obtain our data on differences and similarities between national GAAP and IAS from bgaap 2001: A Survey of National Accounting Rules Benchmarked against International Accounting StandardsQ published by Andersen, BDO, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst and Young, Grant Thornton, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (Nobes, 2001).

5 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) In this study, bpartners in the large accountancy firms in more than 60 countriesq [62 countries, to be precise] were asked to bbenchmark their local written requirements against some 80 accounting measures, focusing on standards (both IAS and national) in force for the financial reporting period ending 31 December The resulting high level summaries were prepared by identifying, for the selected accounting measures, those instances in which a country would not allow (because of inconsistent requirements) or would not require (because of missing or permissive requirements) the IAS treatment.q By using 2001 data to create our measures, we can analyze the btrueq divergence and absence indexes, since these differences occur before the date of mandatory application IAS in certain regions (e.g. the required adoption in 2005 for the European Union and Australia). For each country, the accounting differences with IAS are listed in four categories: (1) baccounting may differ from that required by IAS because of the absence of specific rules on recognition and measurement,q (2) bno specific rules requiring disclosures,q (3) binconsistencies betweenq national band IAS rules that could lead to differences for many enterprises in certain areas,q (4) bin certain enterprises, these other issues could lead to differences from IAS.Q Appendix A shows the results of the survey concerning one sample-country: Australia. We found ourselves confronted by several methodological issues. The result of the survey is bnegativelyq organized in the sense that it only includes babsentq or binconsistentq items. Items that are bin conformityq or bpresentq or bconsistentq are not disclosed (see Appendix A). Because it was crucial to identify these items for the purposes of this paper, we referred to the survey questionnaire, presented in GAAP 2001 (p ). Appendix B presents the first two questions as an illustration. This questionnaire has 79 questions. The only way to identify bin conformityq items was to take all the questions from the questionnaire and search for the related item and/or IAS paragraph in the survey s results (see Appendix A). We then assumed that an item related to a question not covered in the results was an bin conformityq item. This brought us to realize that the order of questions in the questionnaire and the order of items mentioned in the results were not always consistent. Additionally, some topics listed in the results did not correspond exactly to a question: for instance, some questions were split into two items. We therefore matched the questions and results country by country. It was then decided to create a comprehensive list of items, comprising all items found in both the results and the questions. We identified 111 items (starting from the initial 79 questions in the questionnaire). With this list of items, for each country we were able to prepare the following codification, concentrating on differences: Code A B C D Meaning Absence of specific rules on recognition and measurement No specific rules requiring disclosures Inconsistencies that could lead to differences for many enterprises Differences in some enterprises

6 330 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) As we found that the distinction was not always clear-cut between categories C (differences for many enterprises) and D (differences in certain enterprises), we merged them. As categories A and B refer to the absence of rules (recognition/measurement or disclosures), we also merged these two categories. Our final classifications were thus as follows: Code Meaning 1 Divergence: inconsistencies that could lead to differences for many or some enterprises 2 Absence: of specific rules on recognition/measurement or disclosure The score per country for each category is determined by the number of accounting items included in the categories. In all, 62 countries national GAAP were studied, but only a maximum of 52 are presented in this study due to the availability of data concerning our independent variables: Hofstede s cultural dimensions. Using Schwartz s (1994) value types (see below) leads to a restricted sample of 32 countries. Table 1 presents the divergence/absence/conformity scores for the 52 countries studied (both present in our IAS database and in Hofstede s sample). Of the 111 items identified in IAS, on average, 21 are divergent from national rules, 24 are absent from national principles, and 66 are in conformity. We then conducted an analysis by IAS. For each item we compute the number of countries where local rules were divergent (divergence), less comprehensive (absence), different (absence or divergence) or equivalent to IASB rules. Since we have 52 countries in our sample, the total score for all three dimensions (divergence, absence, and conformity) equals 52. We then aggregate items for each IAS. For example, three items relate to IAS 1. The sum of the scores is thus 156 (=52*3). Since the number of items per IAS is not constant (three items for IAS 1, as mentioned, 5 items for IAS Table 1 Divergence, absence, difference and conformity scores for the 52 countries studied Divergence (1) Absence (2) Difference (A =1+2) Conformity (B, as a check) Total (A +B) Mean SD Minimum Percentile 25% Median Percentile 75% Maximum Our two indexes of differences (divergence and absence) are based on the study of 111 IAS items for 52 countries. For a given country, divergence is the number of items (out of 111) for which national GAAP and IAS diverge (prescription of different solutions to the same problem). Absence is the number of items absent in national GAAP compared to IAS (items covered in IAS but not in national GAAP). Difference is the sum of divergence and absence. Conformity is the addition of 111 dummy variables coded 1 if local rules and IAS are identical (111 items studied). Total is the sum of conformity and difference.

7 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) , etc.), we present the percentage of items divergent, absent, different or in conformity compared to IAS. Going back to the example of IAS 1, we found no countries with diverging standards, 29 with absent items and 127 with items in conformity (total: 156). The corresponding percentages are 0%, 19% (= 29/ 156) and 81% (= 127 / 156). We interpret this percentage as an aggregate measure of divergence/ absence/difference/conformity of local standards with regard to a given IAS. For instance, national standards are 81% in conformity with IAS 1. Table 2 presents the results by IAS. Table 2 shows that the four most harmonized accounting standards are binflation adjustment,q bassociates,q bjoint ventures,q and btangible assets,q while the four least harmonized accounting standards are bdiscontinuing operations,q bfinancial instruments: recognition and measurement,q bemployee benefits,q and bfinancial instruments.q Interestingly, these international accounting differences exist for various reasons. For bdiscontinuing operationsq and bemployee benefits,q the difference mainly arises from the lack of relevant accounting standards in many countries; financial instruments, on the other hand, are a major area of international divergence because many nations take different approaches from IAS. Table 2 Level of divergence/absence/difference/conformity of national GAAP relative to IAS IAS Related theme Divergence (1) [%] Absence (2) [%] Difference (=1+2) [%] 1 Presentation of financial statements Inventories Cash flow statements Extraordinary items Post-balance-sheet events Construction contracts Deferred tax Segment information Tangible fixed assets Leases Employee benefits Government grants Foreign currency translations Business combinations Related parties Consolidated subsidiaries Associates Inflation adjustment Joint ventures Financial instruments Earnings per share Discontinuing operations Impairment of assets Provisions and contingencies Intangible assets and goodwill Financial instruments: recognition and measurement Investment property Conformity (3) [%]

8 332 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) How does culture influence accounting? In this section, we briefly describe how cultural issues have been introduced into international accounting research, with reference first to Hofstede s cultural dimensions model (Hofstede, 1980, 1991, 2001), then the conception of accounting values by Gray (1988). We also discuss the cultural dimensions of values, introduced more recently by Schwartz (1994). Finally, we present our hypotheses Hofstede s cultural dimensions model bculture is defined as collective programming of the mind; it manifests itself not only in values, but in more superficial ways: in symbols, heroes, and ritualsq (Hofstede, 2001,p. 1). Based on an attitude survey of IBM employees in 66 countries during the 1970s, Hofstede developed country-based indices corresponding to four dimensions of national culture for each country surveyed. With the help of this model, cultural differences and their consequences between nations, societies, and regions can be described in detail. Here are the definitions of these key dimensions. Power distance: The extent to which the less powerful members of society accept that power is unequally distributed. Individualism: In individualistic societies there are few ties beyond those of the nuclear family, whereas in collectivist societies people belong to strong, cohesive in-groups. Masculinity: In bmasculineq societies men are assertive, tough, and concerned with material success, whereas women are more modest, tender, and interested in the quality of life. In dfemininet societies, both are equally concerned with quality of life. Uncertainty avoidance: The extent to which people feel threatened by uncertain or unknown situations. This is expressed in a need for formality, predictability, and clear rules. This cultural dimensions model has been challenged by several researchers (Bond, 1988; Smith, Dugan, & Trompenaars, 1996). For example, Smith et al. (1996) examined the replicability of Hofstede s methodologies. They raised the following question: did Hofstede s measures reflect the Western values of those who designed them? Hofstede had addressed this issue by undertaking a Chinese Value Survey (Hofstede & Bond, 1988), subsequent to which a further dimension, blong-term OrientationQ (also named bconfucian DynamismQ), was introduced. Long-term orientation: The extent to which people favor a pragmatic, future-oriented perspective-fostering virtues like perseverance and thrift-over short-term thinking. Appendix C shows the scores for the first four dimensions for the 52 countries surveyed, the blong-term orientationq dimension being disregarded in this study because data are only available for a limited number of countries (23). For example, the United States scores 91 on Individualism and Guatemala six, reflecting the fact that the United States is highly individualistic and Guatemala very collectivist. Although Hofstede s cultural dimensions model has been criticized in the literature (Baskerville, 2003; Gernon & Wallace, 1995; Hofstede, 2002, 2003; McSweeney, 2002a,b), it is extensively used in business-related (including accounting) research and psychological research (Sondergaard, 1994). Gernon and Wallace (1995) reviewed issues

9 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) and problems in the application of Hofstede s cultural dimensions. They described cultural studies in international accounting research as btrapped by a paradigm myopia by its reliance on the framework suggested by HofstedeQ (p. 85), partly because Hofstede s survey was limited to one organization and may not be applicable to other contexts. Baskerville (2003) argued that bthe embeddedness of the four dimensions in the social, political or economic measures indicates that the dimensions identified by Hofstede describe characteristics of different nations, most of which could be identified as socioeconomic in origin.q Another possible criticism of Hofstede s approach is that the IBM data are now old and therefore obsolete. However, in his new edition of bculture s consequences,q Hofstede (2001, p. 73) argued that the dimensions found were assumed to have centuries-old roots. Furthermore, only data that remained stable across his two subsequent surveys were retained. Since 1980, Hofstede s cultural dimensions have been validated against other external measurements and recent replications show no loss of validity (Barkema & Vermeulen, 1997; Hoppe, 1990; Sondergaard, 1994; van Oudenhoven, 2001) Gray s accounting values It was Gray (1988) who made the major contribution of introducing Hofstede s cultural dimensions into accounting. Based on Hofstede s model, he developed four accounting values: Professionalism versus statutory control: A preference for the exercise of individual professional judgment and the maintenance of professional self-regulation as opposed to compliance with prescriptive legal requirements and statutory control. Uniformity versus flexibility: A preference for the enforcement of uniform accounting practices between companies and for the consistent use of such practices over time as opposed to flexibility in accordance with the perceived circumstances of individual companies. Conservatism versus optimism: A preference for a cautious approach to measurement so as to cope with the uncertainty of future events as opposed to a more optimistic, laissezfaire, risk-taking approach. Secrecy versus transparency: A preference for confidentiality and the restriction of disclosure of information about the business only to those who are closely involved with its management and financing as opposed to a more transparent, open, and publicly accountable approach. Gray (1988) sets out to link his accounting values to Hofstede s cultural dimensions. Following this proposition, a number of empirical research papers attempted to find empirical evidence on this topic, and the Hofstede Gray framework was strengthened and enhanced by other studies (Belkaoui, 1989; Chow, Chau, & Gray, 1995; Hussein, 1996; Perera, 1989; Perera & Mathews, 1990; MacArthur, 1996; Roberts & Salter, 1999). A number of hypotheses relating societal values to accounting sub-cultural values have been proposed. In particular, Perera (1989) developed a useful explanation of cultural factors specifically for the context of developing countries accounting systems. He argues that a combination of accounting sub-cultural dimensions have considerable influence on accounting practices.

10 334 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) Schwartz s cultural dimensions of values On the basis of data gathered during the period from 86 samples drawn from 41 cultural groups in 38 nations, Schwartz (1994, p. 102) and Schwartz and Bardi (1997, p. 396) divided national cultures into seven value types: Conservatism: Emphasis on the status quo, propriety, and restraint of actions or inclinations that might disrupt the solidary group or the traditional order. Autonomy: Emphasis on the person viewed as an autonomous entity entitled to pursue his or her individual interests and desires. It can be split into two sub-dimensions: Intellectual autonomy: Emphasis on self-direction and flexibility of thoughts. Affective autonomy: Emphasis on stimulation and hedonism. Hierarchy: Emphasis on the legitimacy of the hierarchical role and resource allocation. Mastery: Emphasis on active mastery of the social environment through self-assertion. Promotion of active efforts to modify one s surroundings and get ahead of other people. Egalitarian commitment: Emphasis on transcendence of selfish interests, voluntary commitment to promoting the welfare of other people. Harmony: Emphasis on fitting harmoniously into the environment protecting the environment, unity with nature, world of beauty. Appendix D shows the scores for these seven dimensions for the countries surveyed (based on Schwartz, 1994, p ; Schwartz & Bardi, 1997, p. 397, 399). Thirty-two countries are common to Schwartz s sample and our sample of IAS indexes. These seven culture-level value types are condensed by Schwartz into two broad dimensions: (1) autonomy versus conservatism and (2) egalitarian commitment and harmony versus hierarchy and mastery. Schwartz s (1994) cultural dimensions of values have recently been used in international accounting (Hope, 2003) or finance (Chui, Lloyd, & Kwok, 2002) research as a useful complement to Hofstede s model Hypotheses Culture The theory behind our hypotheses is that culture plays an important role in shaping the accounting standards and practices of a particular country (Perera, 1994). We expect that the level of harmonization with the IAS will vary between countries, especially between those with different cultural dimensions. As said earlier, this study concentrates on differences between IAS and national GAAP (see previous section for a description of the two categories below): Divergence: The national GAAP cover the specific accounting field also regulated by IAS, however the two sets of accounting standards propose different solutions; Absence: the national GAAP do not cover the specific accounting field regulated by IAS. Our first hypothesis is formulated on the basis of the two models of culture described above: Hofstede (1980, 1991, 2001) and Schwartz (1994).

11 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) H1. Culture matters in explaining divergence with IAS and the absence of local standards on topics covered by IAS Legal origin This paper concentrates primarily on culture as an explanatory variable for two reasons: first, recent literature in economics and finance (Greif, 1994; Landes, 2000; Stulz & Williamson, 2003) demonstrates that culture is a determinant of economic institutions; second, culture has not yet been taken into consideration in explaining international accounting harmonization. But we also introduce the legal origin factor into our models. Several authors have examined the link between disclosure levels and culture and legal origin (Jaggi & Low, 2000; Hope, 2003), and legal origin emerged as a variable that could explain disclosure level. Moreover, La Porta et al. (1998, 2000) show that legal origin proxies for various institutional factors such as investor protection and ownership concentration. If it is accepted that IAS represent a more uniform, less conservative, and less secretive set of standards than most national GAAP in the world, and that common-law countries are traditionally favorable to full disclosure (Ball et al., 2000), then common-law countries can be expected to show less divergence from IAS. They are also likely to have more highly developed regulation systems than code-law countries. H2. Common-law countries are likely to have accounting standards that diverge less from IAS than those of code-law countries. H3. Common-law countries are likely to have accounting standards that are more extensive than those of code-law countries with regard to IAS. 4. Measurement of the independent variables We apply first Hofstede s cultural dimensions, then Schwartz s value types Research design no. 1: Hofstede s cultural dimensions Hofstede (1980, 1991, 2001) proposed a definition and scoring system for five cultural dimensions as summarized in Section 3: power distance index (pdi), masculinity (mas), individualism (ind), uncertainty avoidance (ua), and long-term orientation. As mentioned above, this last dimension is disregarded in this study because data are only available for a limited number of countries. Hofstede s initial sample included 66 countries, 52 of which are in our sample of IAS difference/absence/conformity indexes (Appendix E lists the 52 countries included in our sample). A brief examination of the correlation matrix (not tabulated) reveals a potential multicollinearity problem, since power distance and individualism are both negatively and significantly correlated (0.63 at the 0.01 level). To avoid the effects of multicollinearity, which threatens to affect the interpretation of the regression results, we will run several variations of the same model, excluding some

12 336 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) Table 3 Pearson s correlation matrix of Schwartz s value types for the 32-country sample Conservatism Affective autonomy Intellectual autonomy Hierarchy Mastery Egalitarian commitment Harmony Conservatism Affective 0.780*** autonomy Intellectual 0.744*** 0.703*** autonomy Hierarchy Mastery Egalitarian *** commitment Harmony *** ***Correlation significant at the 0.01 level. variables. Collinearity can also be diagnosed by evaluating the VIF (variance inflation factor) for each variable Research design no. 2: Schwartz s value types Schwartz (1994) proposed a definition and sourcing system for seven value types as summarized in Section 3: conservatism, intellectual autonomy, affective autonomy, hierarchy, mastery, egalitarian commitment, and harmony. 32 countries are common to Schwartz s and our sample of IAS indexes (Appendix F lists the 32 countries included in this sub-sample). We examine the correlation matrix between these seven variables (Table 3). Multicollinearity can be diagnosed because conservatism is negatively and significantly correlated with affective autonomy, intellectual autonomy, and egalitarian commitment, whereas hierarchy is negatively and significantly correlated with egalitarian commitment and harmony. To avoid this multicollinearity problem, which seems to be more serious than in the case of Hofstede s variables, we conduct a factor analysis of the seven Schwartz value type variables using a principal component extraction method with a varimax rotation. The eigen values associated with each factor are reported in Table 4. Consistent with Hair, Anderson, Tatham, & Black (1998), we select factors only if their eigen value is greater than one. A two-factor solution clearly appears, explaining more than 70% of the variance. Using the rotated factor matrix, shown in Table 4, taking into account the sign and magnitude of factor loading, factor 1 and factor 2 can be interpreted as follows: A high score on factor 1 means that the inhabitants of the country accept harmony but not hierarchy and mastery. To simplify, we will call this the bno hierarchyq factor. 2 The VIF measures the degree to which each explanatory variable is explained by the other explanatory variables. Traditionally, collinearity is not considered to be a problem when the VIF does not exceed 10 (Neter, Wasserman, & Kutner, 1983).

13 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) Table 4 Varimax principal components factor analysis (Schwartz s value types) Eigen values Percentage of variance explained Conservatism Affective autonomy Intellectual autonomy Hierarchy Mastery Egalitarian commitment Harmony Cumulative percentage explained Factor 1 Factor 2 Conservatism Affective autonomy Intellectual autonomy Hierarchy Mastery Egalitarian commitment Harmony Factor 2 is mainly driven by autonomy (either affective or intellectual) as opposed to conservatism. To simplify, we will call this the bautonomyq factor. Our results are similar to those of Schwartz (1994) and Schwartz and Bardi (1997). To measure culture, we will use the scores corresponding to the two factors which, by construction, are not correlated Legal origin Legal origin is defined by the common-law/code-law distinction as used by La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, Shleiffer, and Vishny (1997). As certain countries (mainly former Eastern-bloc countries) are not included in these authors sample, we use the classification devised by the University of Ottawa 3 to extend our sample. 5. Statistical results For each cultural model, we start with a brief presentation of univariate statistics. A multivariate analysis is then conducted and results are discussed Univariate results Table 5 reports correlations between divergence/absence and our cultural (panels A and B) and institutional factor (panel C) proxies. 3 This list can be downloaded at the following address: eng-tableau.html.

14 338 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) Table 5 Univariate tests: Pearson s correlation between IAS indexes and (1) cultural dimensions and (2) legal origin Variables Divergence Absence Panel A: Hofstede s cultural dimensions Power distance index 0.366*** ( p) (0.008) (0.357) Individualism 0.485*** ( p) (0.000) (0.476) Masculinity ( p) (0.331) (0.245) Uncertainty avoidance ** (p) (0.255) (0.014) Panel B: Schwartz s value types Factor 1 (No hierarchy) 0.413** ( p) (0.019) (0.079) Factor 2 (Autonomy) 0.507*** ( p) (0.003) (0.936) Panel C: Legal origin Common law *** ( p) (0.294) (0.003) ** Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). *** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Definition of variables: Divergence is the number of items (out of 111) for which national GAAP and IAS diverge (prescription of different solutions to the same problem). Absence is the number of items absent in national GAAP compared to IAS (items covered in IAS but not in national GAAP). Power distance index: The extent to which the less powerful members of society accept that power is unequally distributed. Individualism: In individualistic societies there are few ties beyond those of the nuclear family, whereas in collectivist societies people belong to strong, cohesive in-groups. Masculinity: InbmasculineQ societies men are assertive, tough, and concerned with material success, whereas women are more modest, tender, and interested in the quality of life. In bfeminineq societies, both are equally concerned with quality of life. Uncertainty avoidance: The extent to which people feel threatened by uncertain or unknown situations. This is expressed in a need for formality, predictability and clear rules. Factor 1 measures the level of acceptance of harmony but not of hierarchy and mastery. To simplify, we call factor 1 the bno hierarchyq factor. Factor 2 measures autonomy (either affective or intellectual) as opposed to conservatism. To simplify, we call factor 2 the bautonomyq factor. Common law is a dummy variable coded 1 if the country has a common law tradition. All variables are country-specific measures. Panel A reports the Pearson s correlation between the four cultural dimensions identified by Hofstede (1980, 1991, 2001) and our divergence/absence scores. The divergence index is significantly negatively correlated with the power distance index and positively with individualism. This gives support to our first hypothesis (H1). The absence index is significantly positively correlated with uncertainty avoidance, in accordance with the same hypothesis. Overall, univariate results give support to our first hypothesis. Panel B reports the Pearson s correlation between the two main cultural dimensions identified on the basis of Schwartz (1994) and our divergence/absence scores.

15 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) The divergence index is significantly positively correlated with no hierarchy (factor 1) and autonomy (factor 2). This also gives support to our first hypothesis (H1). The absence index is not correlated with either of the two factors, which is not in accordance with H1. Panel C exhibits no correlation between the level of divergence and legal origin. However, there is a negative correlation between the level of absence and legal origin, which seems to provide support for H3: code-law countries have a less extensive set of standards, compared to IAS, than their common law counterparts Regression results: Hofstede s cultural dimensions Multivariate analysis results are presented in Table 6. Panel A presents the results for the divergence index, and panel B for the absence index. For each, we estimate alternative specifications for two basic models: Divergence ¼ a 0 þ a 1 Power distance index þ a 2 Individualism þ a 3 Masculinity þ a 4 Uncertainty avoidance þ a 5 Common law þ e ð1þ Absence ¼ b 0 þ b 1 Power distance index þ b 2 Individualism þ b 3 Masculinity þ b 4 Uncertainty avoidance þ b 5 Common law þ e ð2þ We tabulate two specifications for each equation: Model (1) and model (3): with four cultural variables only (power distance index, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance); Model (2) and model (4): full models including cultural variables and legal origin (common law). We computed the VIFs, which are all lower than Multicollinearity does not thus appear to be a real problem. In model (1), divergence with IAS is apparently explained by differences in culture, particularly as adjusted R 2 is almost 27%. Divergence is significantly related to individualism and uncertainty avoidance. Concerning uncertainty avoidance, our results demonstrate that countries with a higher level of uncertainty avoidance will not prefer uniformity and will thus be less inclined to conform with IAS. The IAS are known to require a high level of disclosure, to favor a btransparentq (less secretive) approach to financial reporting, and to be less conservative (Ball et al., 2000). Our result is consistent with Salter and Niswander (1995) who carried out one of the most comprehensive studies on the relationship between culture and international accounting differences. They find a negative relationship between uniformity and uncertainty avoidance, in contrast to Gray (1988) s prediction. They even mention bother principles for which a market in information exists and for which Gray s proposition may not holdq (p. 389). Finally, Doupnik and Salter (1995) associate a set of

16 340 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) Table 6 Regression results: Hofstede s cultural dimensions and legal origin Panel A: divergence Panel B: absence (1) (2) (3) (4) Power distance index Sig Individualism Sig ** 0.013** Masculinity Sig Uncertainty avoidance Sig ** ** Common law (dummy variable) Sig Constant Sig Observations R Adj R F Sig. ( F) ** Coefficient significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). Definition of variables: Divergence is the number of items (out of 111) for which national GAAP and IAS diverge (prescription of different solutions to the same problem). Absence is the number of items absent in national GAAP compared to IAS (items covered in IAS but not in national GAAP). Divergence and Absence are country-specific measures. Power distance: The extent to which the less powerful members of society accept that power is unequally distributed. Individualism: In individualistic societies there are few ties beyond those of the nuclear family, whereas in collectivist societies people belong to strong, cohesive in-groups. Masculinity: InbmasculineQ societies men are assertive, tough, and concerned with material success, whereas women are more modest, tender, and interested in the quality of life. In bfeminineq societies, both are equally concerned with quality of life. Uncertainty avoidance: The extent to which people feel threatened by uncertain or unknown situations. This is expressed in a need for formality, predictability and clear rules. Common law is a dummy variable coded 1 if the country has a common law tradition. environmental factors and cultural dimensions with international differences in accounting practices. They propose a general model of international accounting development and empirically test its explanatory power. They find that a higher level of disclosure is consistent with a lower level of uncertainty avoidance and that low uncertainty avoidance groups tend to be less conservative. Countries experiencing a higher level of uncertainty avoidance would thus be expected to try to diverge from IAS in order to avoid the high level of disclosure required. In model (2), we added legal origin (common law) to cultural variables. This variable turns out to be unrelated to the level of divergence, which goes against H2. This is an interesting result, showing that legal origin, which has appeared to be a valuable explanatory factor in several studies (Hope, 2003), does not, in fact, play a significant role, probably because the common-law/code-law dichotomy covers a wide diversity of national systems. We also note that the coefficient on uncertainty avoidance becomes non-significant, which suggests that strong links exists between institutional and cultural factors.

17 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) As robustness checks, we also ran the regressions with other specifications (excluding masculinity and legal origin, excluding power distance index, masculinity and legal origin and excluding power distance index). In one of the specifications, we excluded masculinity, following the example of Hope (2003, p. 222, 238), who mentions that some authors consider the link between this dimension and disclosures (the topic studied by Hope) to be more questionable or less important (Gray, 1988; Haskins, Ferris, & Selling, 2000). Our results (not tabulated) are similar. The absence index (absence of national accounting rules on an issue covered by IAS) is not explained by cultural variables, since the F statistic is not significant at 5% in model (3). This result can be explained as follows. An analysis of the most frequent items covered by an IAS but not by national rules shows that they relate to IAS 14 (segment information), 19 (employee benefits), 22 (business combinations), 33 (earnings per share computation), 35 (discontinuing operations), 32 and 39 (financial instruments), and 40 (specifically, the fair value of property investments). These standards depend more on the level of economic development and the size of the capital market than national culture. To proxy for these two variables, we also added legal origin to the research design for the measurement of absence (see Table 5, panel B, model (4). La Porta et al. (1997) show that in common law countries, capital market development is higher than in code-law countries. Nevertheless, legal origin does no better than cultural values in explaining the absence index, since the F statistic is still not significant at 5%. Overall, our results suggest that a bdivergenceq status with regard to IAS can be explained by variations in national culture. Such is not the case for the absence index Regression results: Schwartz s value types Multivariate analysis results are presented in Table 7. Panel A presents the results for the divergence index, and Panel B for the absence index. For each, we estimate alternative specifications for two basic models: Divergence ¼ a 0 þ a 1 Factor 1 ðno hierarchy Þþa 2 Factor 2 ðautonomyþ þ a 3 Common law þ e ð3þ Absence ¼ a 0 þ a 1 Factor 1 ðno hierarchy Þþa 2 Factor 2 ðautonomyþ þ a 3 Common law þ e ð4þ As we did with Hofstede s cultural values, we tabulate two specifications for each equation: Model (1) and model (3): with cultural factors only (factor 1 no hierarchy and factor 2 autonomy); Model (2) and model (4): full model including cultural factors and legal origin (common-law).

18 342 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) The divergence from IAS is apparently explained by differences in culture, particularly as adjusted R 2 is almost 39%. Our first hypothesis is backed by the multivariate analysis concerning divergence (model (1)), since both variables, which correspond to factors 1 and 2 defined in Section 4 above, are significant at conventional levels. Schwartz s first sub-dimension corresponds to our factor 1, i.e. autonomy versus conservatism. This shows that countries with a high autonomy score are more inclined to diverge from IAS. The second sub-dimension corresponds to the values of egalitarian commitment and harmony versus hierarchy and mastery. Hierarchy can be linked to international accounting harmonization: the greater a country s acceptance of hierarchy, the more likely it is to accept external influence from a supra-national source, and consequently the IAS. The same applies to mastery: taking action to control the environment appears to be quite compatible with acceptance of an external influence. The same reasoning works conversely. Our results show that a country with a lower hierarchy/mastery score is likely to have accounting standards that diverge from IAS. There is no association between divergence and legal origin (panel A, model (2)), if this variable is added to factors 1 and 2, previously identified as summarizing Schwartz s value types. The absence index (absence of national accounting rules concerning an issue covered by IAS) is not explained by cultural variables, since the F statistic is not significant at 5% whatever the specifications (models (3) and (4)). Table 7 Regression results: Schwartz s cultural dimensions and legal origin Panel A: divergence Panel B: absence (1) (2) (3) (4) Factor 1 (No hierarchy) Sig *** 0.089* 0.084* Factor 2 (Autonomy) Sig *** 0.003*** Common law Sig Constant Sig *** 0.000*** 0.000*** 0.000*** Observations R Adj R F Sig. ( F) * Coefficient significant at the 0.10 level (2-tailed). *** Coefficient significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Divergence is the number of items (out of 111) for which national GAAP and IAS diverge (prescription of different solutions to the same problem). Absence is the number of items absent in national GAAP compared to IAS (items covered in IAS but not in national GAAP). Factor 1 measures the level of acceptance of harmony but not of hierarchy and mastery. To simplify, we call factor 1 the bno hierarchyq factor. Factor 2 measures autonomy (either affective or intellectual) as opposed to conservatism. To simplify, we call factor 2 the bautonomyq factor. Common law is a dummy variable coded 1 if the country has a common-law tradition.

19 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) Overall, our results suggest that a bdivergingq status with regard to IAS can be explained by variations in national culture. 6. Limitations One of the contributions of this paper is the creation of new measures of international accounting differences. However, it should be noted that our measures are based on Nobe s (2001) study, which relies upon subjective responses. Moreover, in computing our divergence/absence indexes, we considered that each of the 111 items studied was of equal weight: we then counted the number of divergence/absence responses for each country in our sample. Divergence and absence were thus treated as continuous variables. For instance, a country with 50% divergence is deemed to be twice as divergent as a country that is 25% divergent. This bequal-weightq assumption may be debatable, but the same could be said of the contrary solution (attributing a specific weight to each item over a total of 111). The definition of a specific weight would imply that IAS are not equally important, and the concept of the importance of one IAS is not easily evaluated. Another possible limitation lies in the fact that our vision of national culture is partly derived from Hofstede (1980). Hofstede s model has been strongly criticized (Baskerville, 2003) but is still widely used because of its extensive international coverage, and has generated robust results. When using Schwartz s value types, our results still hold, which strengthens evidence for the influence of culture on international accounting harmonization. 7. Conclusion This study is designed to examine whether differences between national accounting standards and IAS are explained by cultural dimensions and legal origin. We measure differences between national GAAP and IAS using two innovative measures: divergence and absence. Divergence measures the degree to which national GAAP and IAS cover a specific accounting topic but prescribe different methods. Absence measures the degree to which national GAAP do not cover an accounting issue regulated by IAS. We use two different sets of measures to proxy culture: the first from Hofstede (1980, 1991, 2001) and the second from Schwartz (1994). We find that cultural values are associated with our divergence index and matter even more than legal origin in explaining divergences from IAS. With regard to the absence index, we find no significant relationship with either cultural values or legal origin. These results contribute to the existing literature in two ways: (1) the relationship between culture and international accounting harmonization has not been studied previously, and (2) although legal origin is usually considered as an explanatory variable for accounting information (Ball et al., 2000), this does not seem to be the case at the level of accounting regulation in the context of international accounting harmonization. This paper contributes to the ongoing debate on accounting harmonization. More specifically, our findings suggest that the technical and/or political dimensions of the

20 344 Y. Ding et al. / The International Journal of Accounting 40 (2005) debate, although essential, are not the only issues involved. Opposition to IAS is not driven exclusively by contractual motives or a claimed technical superiority but also by diversity in cultural factors. Another contribution of this paper is the development of a two-dimensional score to benchmark the differences between national GAAP and IAS. Acknowledgements The authors have benefited from helpful comments from workshop participants at University of Bordeaux IV (CRECCI, France, 2004) and the Illinois International Accounting Conference (Athens, 2004) and Afroditi Papadiki (discussant). They are particularly grateful to the anonymous reviewer for his/her insightful suggestions. They acknowledge the financial support of the HEC Foundation and the Research Center at the HEC School of Management (project F042). They would also like to thank Germain Le Graverend for his able research assistance. Finally, the authors are indebted to Ann Gallon for her much appreciated editorial help. The authors are members of the GREGHEC, CNRS unit, FRE Appendix A. Australia (Source: Nobes, 2001, p. 14) Australian requirements are based mainly on the Corporations Act 2001 and the standards of the Australian Accounting Standards Board and Abstracts of the Urgent Issues Group. Australian accounting may differ from that required by IAS because of the absence of specific Australian rules on recognition and measurement in the following areas: Intangible assets IAS 38 The derecognition of financial assets IAS Provisions, except for certain specific cases such as redundancy and cyclical maintenance IAS 37 Defined benefit employee obligations IAS 19 The treatment of dividends proposed after the balance sheet date, particularly as practice IAS 10 is generally to accrue for them Detailed requirements for calculating impairment; it is not necessary to discount the cash IAS 36.5 flows when calculating recoverable amount for impairment losses. There are no specific rules requiring disclosures of: The fair values of investment properties IAS Discontinuing operations IAS 35 Segment liabilities. IAS There are inconsistencies between Australian and IAS rules that could lead to differences for many enterprises in certain areas. Under Australian rules: Trading, available-for-sale and derivative financial assets are not recognized at fair value IAS Trading and derivative liabilities are not recognized at fair value IAS Gains and losses on the change in value of trading financial instruments are not required IAS to be taken to income Hedge accounting is permitted more widely IAS Deferred tax is accounted for on the basis of timing differences rather than temporary IAS differences

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